What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?

This story considers, what if Peter Quill was actually delivered to his father, the one who came to earth and sired him.

Ego manipulates Peter as a child, to help spread his seed and destroy other planets.

So Peter comes to Earth in 1988 and starts destroying midtown Manhattan. A resistance movement is swiftly assembled. The Earth's Mightiest Heroes soon joined by Thor, looking for vengeance as his planet and people have been annihilated.

They consist of Agent Carter, Howard Stark, Hank Pym as Ant-Man, King T'Chaka as Black Panther, The Winter Soldier and Wendy Lawson.

The young Peter is subdued but it is Hank's daughter Hope who gets them to see Peter's human side.

Food for thought of a prototype Avengers story. Ego is suitably callous, manipulative, evil and great hair. At its heart this is a little boy lost tale.

The appeal of "What If...?" also has the opportunity to become a detriment really fast. To tell these multiverse stories is a good and fun idea, but in some cases, the original story that it detracts from is a heartfelt and emotional one. The new direction can easily feel like it's taking away from a better story, and that was honestly my worries with this episode. The storyline of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" offered a lot of poignant and emotional moments, and luckily, this episode twists the story in a way that it still hits you with that punch that you want it to.

A lot has to be done in the small scope of these episodes, and this actually managed to tell a story on a grander scale than the medium would allow. And a lot of that is because of the emotionality in this episode's storytelling, still gravitating towards the themes of James Gunn's "Guardians" films about family and Peter Quill wanting to find his own place in the universe. The framework is quite interesting here and it sets the stage for some very entertaining action sequences that makes full use of the show's animation style and enables it to push some battles into overdrive. It also presents a very interesting new take on Quill and the abilities he gained from actually joining Ego as a child, enhanced by the desire he has to come home and feel the pull of familiarity that he lost. He is the most interesting part of the story, and that's strange given the insane lineup of Avengers members this episode features. It gives us a whole bunch of great guest stars who all do the job very well, but in the end, the lineup of the team is an afterthought in this episode, and that's not a fault, but an interesting observation. The ending may feel a little bit rushed for some, and Ego's goal has never been interesting to me, so his presence in this episode doesn't really do a whole lot, although it is nice to hear Kurt Russell have a lot of fun with this very eccentric character.

"What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes" works because it keeps the emotional familiarity of the Gunn films and uses it to its advantage. It has an interesting Avengers lineup and some good guest stars, with Ego being the episode's only real letdown given his already weak motivations that continue to be present here.

This was an interesting one. Its 1988 and a tween Peter Quill crashlands on Earth. One of the weird things to start, he like kills 20 people crashing in NYC. But the rest of the episode has no deaths, I just found that odd. I loved the idea that his father destroys his walkman thereby symbolically taking away his sons soul and making him spoiled. If you are a comics fan its enjoyable at least to see the new characters that haven't been in a movie before like Dr. Bill Foster and King T'chaka. I loved how they made Hope this very sexy vivacious woman. When a Giant Bill opens his hand and Hope was reclining with her leg up, that got my heart fluttering. The MCU needs a lot more cheesecake/pinup if you will, it would be very refreshing.

I guess I enjoyed this overall because it was fun to see Ego and Peter at the height of their powers and some of the performances such as Bucky's were so cool. When Peter said "this is why I am called STAR LORD" that was freaking awesome. Come on admit it.

I think too many of these shorts aren't even that What-Iffy like nobody ever thought wow what if Hogan became Purple Hulk or what if Nebula was in Blade Runner but actually getting to see what if Peter was raised by Ego is an actual interesting question.

I am not sure if I like the idea that Peter is now joining some kind of vengeance force to kill whatever is left of Ego though, I wish he had a chance to be a wholesome kid. Overall... I can't understand what people want with this show, you gotta be able to turn your brain off, pour yourself the most unhealthy sugar cereal you can find, and watch episodes like this with a silly grin on your face.

This episode actually had a solid concept: instead of having a change of heart, Yondu delivers Peter Quill to Ego, leading to the formation of a proto-Avengers team in the 1980s.

Michael Douglas, Laurence Fishburne, Kurt Russell, and more return to voice their characters and what does Marvel do with this stellar cast? Absolutely nothing. Familiar characters are quickly thrown together with a very sloppy script. Unfortunately, Hemsworth's Thor is also wasted, receiving some horrendous dialogue. The episode is chock-full of misplaced MCU humor, tonal inconsistencies, and plot conveniences.

This is an absolute waste of a great cast and likely a very large budget. The script should be the most important aspect of film/television, something Marvel's What If has forgotten.

Why on earth is anyone surprised that people are finding reasons to complain about this? I don't know when I started exactly where everyone thought they were such a fantastic judge of what quality entertainment is. Maybe during the pandemic? Who knows, but the fact remains that so many of the armchair warriors wouldn't know a worthwhile program if it slapped them in the face. Most of these people just need to crawl back to their spawned from.

In summary, this show is a lot of fun and has limitless potential in what it can do. It definitely shouldn't worry about what a bunch of dorks go can't hold girlfriends say.